Religion in Society.
I appreciate the opportunity to express some long-held feelings concerning religion in our society.
From the earliest known times, mankind in general has felt the need to invest energy in religious spiritualism of different kinds. Two major reasons for this appear to be:
- a lack of understanding of the natural phenomena of the environment by the majority of the populace, coupled with a strong sense of superstition.
- opportunism by certain members of society to take advantage of this to wield power over others.
There have always been people seeking the means to exercise power over others, and religion has been an excellent catalyst for this. Back in the Stone Age when people started congregating in social groups and forming static societies, ignorance of natural phenomena was widespread, hence the worship of ‘mysterious objects’ such as the Sun, Moon and stars. Leaders of these societies, ‘witch-doctors’ and ‘wise men’, commonly used community ignorance and superstition to gain and maintain power and influence over the populace around them.
Human kind in general needs leaders; people to look up to and whose teachings and ‘wisdom’ to follow.
Leaders need followers who are easy to manage and control. Fear and superstition are great means of control, and have been used widely through the centuries for this purpose. This is still happening today despite our widespread knowledge and understanding of the world around us.
Democratic governments happily embrace religion in the belief that it unites and orders their societies, and facilitates their management.
Belief.
Belief in a God or Creator is merely a form of superstition.
How many people today really believe in fairies, goblins, leprechauns and the like? Yet a Creator who abides in Heaven, a Devil in Hell and winged Angels in human form, are no different, and have no scientific justification for existence, yet are embraced by governments and society leaders and even included in national constitutions.
The structure of our governance is predicated on, and the belief in, and existence of a Deity. We beseech this Deity to ‘save our sovereign’ and nation; we take oaths of allegiance to this Spirit to safeguard our national security; our legal system has constant reference to this God, though it is only an idea in the minds of a section of the population, willing and fallible enough to accept the notion that the entire universe was created by a Spirit.
Science certainly does not yet have all the answers to life and existence, but what it does know is based on facts which have been tested in many ways over time. Science theory is another matter and is subject to conjecture. But none of this is based on superstition and stone-age beliefs which have been handed down to the present day.
The ‘creationist’ belief, which is so prevalent in America today, is typical of the willingness by so many to believe in the supernatural, even in the face of our 21st Century knowledge, and particularly in a technically advanced country such as America.
Books such as the Bible and Koran, which are claimed by their followers to prove the existence of a deity, were written by men who, in their time, were indoctrinated by current beliefs and/or the power of other individuals in their social circles. The Bible is merely a history book, with variations, of that era in that part of the world. Some of the claims within its covers are doubtless in the realm of make-believe. For humans to have the capacity to fly with wings, as angels are portrayed, they would require breast-bones six feet deep to contain muscles sufficiently strong to lift their body weights by this method. Yet purveyors of religion expect the populace to believe that angels exist, and also that Heaven and Hell are real places. The idea that humans have a soul, which on death goes to Heaven, is purely one from the human mind. Human-kind is just an advanced form of animal life composed of baryonic matter in a particular form of arrangement. The atoms which comprise humanity, and all matter, were created in the nuclear furnace of stars, with the current human form being just one status of their existence. The soul is merely a product of the conscious mind.
The power of religion through denominational churches, greatly exceeds the value of this system to society.
Most religions postulate kindness, assistance to the weak and frail, and succour to the needy. But in reality, they have caused vastly more pain and suffering to humanity through the aeons of time than either physical or psychological kindness and support.
Wealth.
The major denominations are among the wealthiest organisations in any country, while their hierarchies can be said to consist of power-hungry show ponies, who bask in the glory of magnificent livery and preach to their gullible adherents and the world at large about their heinous sins. Many churches, while being extremely rich, expect their parishioners to donate large sums of money to their coffers. Others demonstrate power by demanding that the women in their societies, at the risk of stoning or death, cover themselves from head to foot. In the same societies, young females are often genitally mutilated in the name of their religion. Such practices have no scientific or medical support. The World Health Organisation says that over three million girls undergo genital mutilation a year in Africa alone. While some countries like Egypt have banned the practice, it is widely continued for religious purposes.
All the while, men in these societies have no qualms in killing or maiming their neighbours who hold differing beliefs, and all in the name of religion and familial honour.
There is no doubt that there have been, and are numerous religious organisations and individuals who are genuinely caring and concerned for the welfare of others, and do all they can to put this philosophy into practice. This is the good side of religion, although why such attitudes and practices are connected with, or rely on religion, is a mystery!
Surely just helping one’s fellow humans for the sake of this is sufficient in itself, without bringing religion along for the ride!
Truth.
One major problem I have with religion in general is that it is based on supposition, and the attempt to capture people’s minds through superstition. By comparison, science is based on proven facts, or as close to facts as have been possible to prove. No one can prove that there is a God or deity of any kind. And of course there is a lot that science cannot prove, but it is making astounding leaps and bounds with the accumulation of knowledge.
It took from the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, until the 15th Century, for mankind’s total knowledge to double. Now it is doubling every three years or less.
Meanwhile, religion around the globe is following the same doctrines as it has for at least two thousand years.
The Creationist following which views science and scientific results through the eyes of religious bigotry and distortion, is drastically undermining the value of proven facts, reality and Truth. Claiming that the Earth is only several thousand years old is equivalent to believing it is flat, and that it is possible to fall off the edge!
The main tenet on which the Christian religion is founded appears to be ‘belief’. Beliefs which were abroad more than two thousand years ago. Belief in ‘a loving God’, yet in the Old Testament, this ‘loving God’ comes across as the originator of fire and brimstone, smiting non-believers and committing them to the fury of Hell.
Religion, to me, is the biggest curse which mankind has imposed on itself, as it is based on untruths, superstition and imagination.
There is no doubt that many intelligent people are also very religious, which shows that there is no correlation between belief and intelligence.
It is common for theologians to claim that mankind has a very special relationship with ‘God’. They maintain that human-kind ‘is made in His image’. Science has found that the DNA profile of all life on Earth has very little variation between species, despite the huge differences in appearances and abilities. At the cellular level, we humans share common features with all other life forms.
Over the millennia, as modern-day humans developed from single celled life forms, through the cycle of apes to our present form, and considering the claim that ‘God’ made this four and a half billion year old planet, which of the life forms over this period were ‘made in His image’?
This claim is so nonsensical and ludicrous as to be hardly worth the space taken to refute it.
The main casualties of religion are ‘truth’ and ‘reality’, as religious zealots attempt to convert others to their way of thinking by quoting man-made ‘scripture’. The Bible contains a host of parables, these being narratives of imagined events which are used to typify moral or spiritual relations. That these events actually occurred cannot be seriously believed as they conflict with the laws of physics.Yet even with our 21st century knowledge, a large percentage of our world societies believes such fairytale rubbish as fact, and worships a ‘God’.
Religious holidays.
The main beneficiaries of such religious holidays as Christmas and Easter in the Christian calendar, and the equivalents in other religions, are business enterprises which exploit such occasions to increase sales.
Such commerce is good for society, though the reasons behind it leave a lot to be desired.
The objectionable aspect of such commercialism is the way our senses are saturated by advertising hyperbole camouflaged within religious veins. Most retailers would have no interest at all in the religious dogma associated with these occasions, but have no hesitation in using these events as a catalyst to sell more product.
Morality.
Debates on moral issues constantly have the churches entering the fray with their opinions, most of which are extremely conservative. The Roman Catholic church, which is compelled to expound the doctrines of the Pope, is the most arch-conservative, yet has the greatest number of sexual offences by its priests against children in its care.
Hypocrisy is often seen to co-exist with religious belief. Despite ethical values often being dispensed from pulpits, the history of religion is laced with barbarism and cruelty to mankind in general. In human history, millions of people have been killed in wars fought on religious grounds. This is still happening today.
In some cultures, rape victims are still stoned to death as a result of religious beliefs, yet the rapists are not considered to have done anything wrong! This is another example of ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ [or woman in this case] through religion.
One positive aspect of religion in our society has been the contribution of its musical genre. The musical notation of this has created untold pleasure amongst music lovers for centuries. The lyrics, unfortunately, often border on the nonsensical.
Summary.
My overview of the place and value of religion in society is that it has inflicted vastly more damage to humanity than benefit, and continues to do so.
The assistance to the poor and needy as rendered by religious organisations could just as easily be generated without any religious input, but by the desired traits of care and feeling for others.
Religion has the unfortunate propensity of encouraging hatred and intolerance of other religious doctrines, resulting in the practice of extreme violence. This is particularly evident in fundamentalist societies.
If intelligent extra-terrestrial life is ever found in this universe or any other, it is my fervent hope that it would not have enmeshed itself with the ‘bête noir’ of religion.
Religion is based on blind faith, not reason. As Bertrand Russell said, ‘If reason shows something to be true, have the courage to accept it.’